Fulton. — The Pipiwharauroa, or Bronze Cuckoo. 397 



go these are preceded by silent birds of the same species, which may be 

 seen about the timber, or perched on fences or telegraph wires, about 

 the first week in August. Why these forerunners should be silent, or whether 

 they are all of one sex, has not been ascertained." A number of our New 

 Zealand correspondents confirm this limitation of the call of our bird in the 

 first few weeks of its arrival. 



In good and warm seasons the birds probably come a little earlier, and 

 the females arrive on a correspondingly early date. This, of course, 

 accounts for the early production of the full note or song, " kui, kui, kui, 

 whiti, whiti, ora," in a good and possibly apparently mild season, a point 

 in the economy of the bird which the Maori was quick to notice (19). 



Herr Gatke (20), one of the greatest authorities on migration of birds, 

 says that the forerunners of the spring migration in the Northern Hemi- 

 sphere are invariably old males ; next come the adult females ; then younger 

 males and females ; and finally males and females of the previous year. 

 Supposing these cuckoos all start at about the same time, the strongest 

 birds would obtain a lead by the stream of birds tailing out on a journey 

 of this length, and the males, on arrival, would be comparatively quiet 

 until the arrival of the females. There is no doubt that the biids take 

 advantage of favourable winds, and wait till a favourable wind blows, or 

 their instinct may have been adapted in the course of age^ to the exact 

 period of the year on which a particular wind blows. The gales of certain 

 directions in the Southern Pacific are all fairly punctual, so to speak, and 

 are generally on hand when expected. The birds come down from the 

 north-west, and strike the coast-line of New Zealand in great numbers, for 

 evidence is forthcoming that they are heard almost as early in the south of 

 Otago as in the north of Auckland, and the dates on which they are stated 

 as being seen and heard throughout the islands do not connect or coincide 

 in a manner sufficient to prove to us that the birds reach the far north 

 first and gradually work south, though this is, of course, possible. When 

 we know that these birds must easily cover five hundred miles a day, it is 

 not of much consequence to know what day in September or October they 

 , arrive at any one particular part of the Dominion. They have been heard 

 as early as the 7th September in north Taranaki, and at Tongaporutu, 

 forty miles north of New Plymouth, on the 28th September. They have 

 been heard as early as the 15th September in Otago, and for many years 

 I noted their arrival at West Taieri from the 20th to the 23rd. Reports 

 come from many other places during the same week, and they keep on 

 arriving and being reported as late as the end of October or even into No- 

 vember. In quite a number of instances the lighthouse-keepers, to whom 

 I specially appealed four or five years ago, have reported the arrival of the 

 birds, noting barometer and thermometer and direction of the wind at 

 the time, and almost invariably the wind is strong from the north-west. 

 Mr. Anderson, at Kahurangi Point Lighthouse, which is half-way between 

 Westport and Cape Farewell, says, "'One arrived on the 6th October; on 

 the 13th I saw three." 



The birds are reported to have been seen in great numbers at Totara. 

 an old Maori battlefield two miles south of Shortland, Thames. Mr. Noel 

 Buchanan reports it at Collingwood on the 25th September ; Mr. Elsdon 

 Best at Ruatoki on the 2nd October ; Mr. Puckey at Kaitaia on the 

 6th October ; and Mr. McCulloch at Hastings on the 12th October. 



Mr. Arnold, from the East Cape Lighthouse, says. " On the night of the 

 5th November one bronze cuckoo struck and killed itself against the lantern- 



